Intervention
by scifislasher
Summary: [Dekaranger] Tag to Episode 40: Gold Badge Education. BanHoji
1. Chapter 1

Intervention

Ban kept a close eye on his partner on the return to base, not liking what he saw. The pouring rain hadn't been enough to hide the pain etched on Hoji's face, the grief in his eyes. He'd never seen the other man look so haunted and he never wanted to see it again. Ever. He knew he couldn't even begin to imagine what Hoji was feeling right now. His partner had loved that woman, Teresa, or if he hadn't he'd been very close to it, and it had come crashing down around him. It couldn't have happened any other way though. Hoji had his duty and he would never compromise it. Not even for love.

He let Jasmine drive back to base, staring out the window as the rain continued to fall, a perfect counterpoint to his depressing thoughts. He wasn't happy about Hoji driving back by himself but he couldn't see any way of convincing his stubborn partner to drive back with either him and Jasmine or, failing that, Sen-chan and Umeko. This case had been important to Hoji, his chance to become tokukyou, and while he'd known that getting his gold badge would take Hoji away him, Ban couldn't find it in him to sabotage things - if Hoji wanted this, Ban would make sure he got it. That was what he'd thought at the time. Now he wished he'd given in to the temptation to interfere, even if only a little, if it would have spared Hoji this.

Back at the Deka base, after he'd found out Hoji had rejected the gold badge he'd worked so hard for, had paid such a high price for, he spent half an hour trying to track his partner down. There was nothing he could do to make Hoji feel better about any of this, but there _was_ one thing he could do and that was distract him, take his mind off everything for a while. It wouldn't last, of course, Hoji wouldn't forget today, but maybe it would help. Just a little. Spotting Hoji walking down the hallway in front of him, Ban increased his pace.

"Hey, Aibo!"

"Aibo ja nai," came the expected response, but the usual 'Don't call me partner' lacked its usual bite, a fact that Ban saw as proving his point. Well, that was where plan Distract Hoji came in, wasn't it? He draped an arm round the taller man's shoulders and started dragging him off in the desired direction, trying not to show his surprise at the way Hoji let him do so.

It was definitely time for some intervention.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Ban forcibly tugged Hoji through the corridors of the base, chattering loudly while his mind rapidly turned over the problem of taking the other man's mind off the events of the day. While he knew of one way that would most definitely distract Hoji, firstly he had no way of guaranteeing that his partner would be receptive and secondly, sex wasn't what Hoji needed right now anyway, in fact it was quite possibly the last thing he needed. Well, no, not the case, Ban thought as he angled Hoji away from the firing range before he realised where they were. Target practice was the last thing he needed right now. But what else was there?

Eventually he managed to get Hoji back to his room, the doors swishing closed behind them. It didn't look like Hoji had been following the conversation at all until Ban finally put his foot in it. Hoji turned on him, shouting at him, insulting him, and Ban forced himself not to flinch at some of the more hurtful things coming out of his partner's mouth; he knew Hoji didn't mean what he was saying, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Still, he thought, with a sudden burst of inspiration, maybe a screaming match was exactly what Hoji needed.

Bracing himself, Ban threw himself into the argument, no longer silently accepting the accusations and insults thrown his way, countering them with attacks of his own, noting with something close to relief that Hoji's hands were curling into fists. _Come on, partner_, he silently prompted, _let go_. He wasn't quite sure what it said about him that he actually _wanted_ Hoji to lash out at him.

Right on cue Hoji let fly, sending Ban stumbling back into the nearest wall before he recovered himself and retaliated. They always seemed to communicate better through fights than words anyway. Hoji's room wasn't the best for this, too cramped and with too many obstacles for them to really go at each other, but it would have to do.

They'd ended up lying half on, half off the bed when the fight went out of them, Ban with Hoji's head in a lock that the other man hadn't been able to break yet, Hoji hands still on Ban's waist from the shove that had landed them where they were. Ban felt the tension drain out of his partner and relaxed his own grip, pulling himself up fully onto the bed and tugging Hoji up with him, the other man complying without protest; leaving them with their faces mere inches apart, looking at each other silently save for the slightly ragged breathing as the adrenaline wore off.

"Thank you," Hoji said eventually, breaking Ban out of the almost trance he'd fallen into, saving him from embarrassing himself by leaning forward the couple of inches that would let him press his mouth to Hoji's and undoing all the progress he'd made.

"You're welcome."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Hoji woke slowly, feeling as if he hadn't really slept. His dreams had been full of Teresa. Teresa laughing, Teresa playing, Teresa smiling. Teresa wailing over the body of her brother. And, for some reason, Ban. Hoji scowled in annoyance. What was Ban doing in his dreams? He flushed a dull red as his words from the previous evening prodded their way to the front of his memory. He hadn't meant most of them and he was sincerely glad that Ban had apparently known that. Even the fight that had carried them round the room and back hadn't held any tension from him. In fact, Hoji thought with narrowing eyes, Ban had been holding back.

Before he could muster up righteous anger over Ban's actions, his annoyance faded. Ban had been trying to help, the best way he knew how. And in all honesty, screaming at the other man and lashing out at him seemed to have been what he needed; he no longer felt so empty inside and for that he was grateful, not that he would ever admit it. But the absence of emptiness left him open to the whirling maelstrom of emotions he'd been trying to suppress yesterday and strangely, the strongest emotion wasn't grief like he'd expected, nor was it, technically, guilt, although both were making themselves known. No, the chief emotion was a lingering sense of 'what if…'.

What if he hadn't been the officer in charge of the murder case? What if he'd listened to his heart instead of his head?

What if it had been Miwa, not Teresa?

That was the question that gnawed at him. Could he kill to keep his sister alive? To cure of her an illness no one else understood? He didn't know. And that was what made it worse.

"Aibo!" The voice and loud hammering on his door coming simultaneously, making him jump. "Get up, you're going to be late!"

"Aibo ja nai!" he yelled back, lips curving a faint smile nonetheless at the laugh from the other side of the door. Only Ban. He always seemed to know what Hoji needed, even when he didn't know it himself, and last night had been an excellent example: he needed to vent, Ban picked a fight; sleep? Ban stayed until he'd drifted off, then pulled his bed covers up over him. He didn't even know when the other man had left.

How did he do it? Hoji wondered as he climbed out of bed, torn between appreciation for Ban's prescience and annoyance that he knew him so well. When had Ban figured him out so completely?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The days following his disastrous bid to become tokukyou passed in something of a blur for Hoji. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Teresa again, crying over the body of her brother. Or sometimes it was in the nun's habit he'd last seen her in. The way she'd stared at him… if anything that was worse than the immediate aftermath. There'd been no hate there, hate he could have accepted, dealt with. Instead there'd been nothing. Just emptiness. Teresa had been a vibrant woman despite her terminal illness, part of her success in hiding it no doubt lay with that aura of life, and now she was reduced to an empty, dying woman in the robes of a god she probably knew little of.

He'd done that. Turned her from a luminous woman with everything to live for into an empty shell and that he couldn't deal with. You weren't supposed to do that to someone you loved. He knew his friends were trying to reach out to him, pull him back from the abyss he hovered on the edge of, but there was little they could do that reached him.

Except for Ban. Somehow Ban managed to get through where the others didn't. Whenever Hoji felt himself succumbing to self-loathing or something equally as self-destructive, Ban was always there with a totally inappropriate comment delivered with a staggering amount of decibel power behind it. Maybe that was how he was doing it, Hoji mused. Perhaps it was the sheer volume that ensured Ban got through - no one could ignore that racket for long.

And yet, even when he wasn't walking the line between loss and something more destructive, Ban was there. Surprising as it was, the other man actually _could_ be an unobtrusive presence and while it could have been irritating, and was, actually, it was also comforting. In a way. Ban was always there. Ban would always be there. And, Hoji thought, that wasn't a bad thing.


End file.
